MLA's have no problem with pay raise while the working class suffers

So here we have the average person in Saskatchewan earning just under $30,000.00 per year

While this is on no surprise to the working women and men in this province, what is surprising is that as of April 1, the wages of Saskatchewan MLAs will rise to $84,409.00

The 2.8% increase is equal to the raise in the provincial Consumer Price index in 2007. All bonus remunerations will rise by the same amount, meaning all cabinet ministers will get an extra $$2,974.00 for a total of $127,383. Premier Wall will make $!47,799 and NDP Leader Lorne Calvert $!27,383.

Usually, I do not tend to agree with the Canadian Federation of Taxpayers, but this time they actually raise a good point. I invite you to see their post and the comments there from Barb Cape, President of SEIU Local 299.

I also invite to read the quote from Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer also reportedly said he has never heard the public complain that MLA wages were too high.

Following the request from the CTF, please be one of "the first," and do let him know your objection to these raises:

Rod Gantefoer, MLA Melfort
Address: Minister of Finance
Government House Leader
Melfort Mall,
P.O. Box 2800,
Melfort, SK S0E 1A0

800.242.6796 (Toll Free)
306.752.9005 (Fax)
rgantefoer@mla.legassembly.sk.ca (Email)
www.melfortconstituency.ca (MLA Website)

Credit card rates - Reg Sherren reports for CBC-TV

You can lower your credit card interest rate just by asking!!

Take on the Big Banks – credit card fee reduction kit

You can lower your interested rate just by calling. I had mine lowered from 19% to 9.7 with one phone call.....

While Jack Layton and the NDP are taking on the Harper Conservatives to lower credit card interest rates, average Canadians can fight back too.

That’s right.

You may be able to reduce your credit card interest rate, just by calling them. Use the NDP’s credit card fee reduction kit.

Who do I talk to?

Contact a representative of the card you hold by calling the toll-free customer service number that corresponds to your card.

Check the list below, or just call the customer service number listed on the back of your card. Be sure to have your card or account number with you.

VISA Card Holders CIBC Visa 1-800-465-4653 TD Canada Trust Visa 1-800-983-8472 Scotiabank Visa 1-800-387-6556 Royal Bank Visa 1-800-769-2512 Desjardins Visa 1-800-363-3380 Laurentian Bank Visa 1-800-252-1846 Bank of America Visa 1-800-441-6437	MasterCard Holders HSBC Mastercard 1-866-406-4722 BMO Mosaik Mastercard 1-800-263-2263 Citi Mastercard 1-800-387-1616 Canadian Tire Mastercard 1-800-459-6415 MBNA Canada Mastercard 1-888-876-6262 CapitalOne Mastercard 1-800-481-3239
American Express card holders 1-800-869-3016

What should I say?

We’ve prepared this script for you. Just call the customer service number for your card and read the script below. The representative will ask you a few questions about your account and should be able to get you lower credit card fees.

Give it a try - these people did

“Hello, my name is YOUR NAME.

I have been a good customer of yours and would really like to stay with CREDIT CARD NAME.

I’d like to talk with someone about lowering my current credit card interest rate. Can you help me with this?”

Liberals unable to rally their supporters in N. Saskatchewan

The happiest day in my life is now going down as March 17th, 2008. Joan Beatty got everything she deserved in the by election.

I first got to see Joan in action two years ago at the Provincial NDP Convention in Regina. At first glance, I put her in the same class as the other MLA's in attendance. She was treated with respect and admiration for her position.

As the convention proceeded, her true colours came shining through as she broke tradition and became actively involved in the election process for Party Executive. She became very outspoken against the possibility of the President of the Party, not only coming out of labour, but being gay as well. Since then, she has constantly stated that "I have no friends in Labour" and has become an egotistical entity.

Watching her leave the NDP and go Liberal, only validates my thoughts that she doesn't care about anyone but herself. Prostituting herself to the highest bidder only shows that whether she was still an NDP MLA or not, she was only in it for herself and not, as she claims, for the voters who elected her.

Life works funny sometimes, but when the polls closed, and the voters made their voice clear....Joan you got what you so rightfully deserved. What a wonderful day Match 17th is!!

Conservative government sentences gay man to beatings

As a Canadian and a gay male, today I hang my head in shame to admit I am Canadian. See additional comments at:

Slap upside the Head
Saskapedia
Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy
Montreal Gazette

Last refugee bid refused to gay Malaysian

Last Updated: Wednesday, March 5, 2008 | 7:41 PM ET cbcnews.ca

A Malaysian man who is to be deported Thursday after being refused refugee status is pleading with the federal government to intervene and let him stay in Canada.

Kulenthiran Amirthalingan made a last-ditch appeal to Immigration Minister Diane Finley, asking her to stay the March 6 deportation order to his native Malaysia. He fears persecution because he is gay.

Amirthalingan, who lives in Montreal, appeared in Ottawa at a news conference Wednesday along with New Democrat MP Thomas Mulcair to request Finley's intervention.

"I am deported back to Malaysia, and I fear my imprisonment, so I would like to ask Ms. Finley to let me stay in Canada," he said.

The soft-spoken Kulen, as he is known to his friends, says he fears for his life if he is sent back to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he experienced discrimination, was harassed and abused for being gay.

Homosexuality is a crime in Malaysia, and punishable by 20 years in jail or caning.

Section 377 of Malaysian's Penal Code states anal and oral sex are illegal whether it's between men, or heterosexual couples.

The penal code also outlaws any sex that is against the "order of nature," whether it is sex between two men, two women or in a heterosexual relationship.

Amirthalingan moved to Montreal in 2003 and applied for refugee status in Canada on humanitarian grounds, arguing his life was in danger because his homosexuality made him a target of Malaysian police who detained him for five days, and abused him, physically and sexually.

"They were punching me, pushing me down to the floor and putting their leg on me to confess that I am a gay," he told CBC last week.

Being gay in Malaysia is difficult, and he is "a bit afraid for my safety" if he's forced to go back.

"I don't have family support too, because my brothers and sisters are against [me] because I'm gay."

Amirthalingan lost his refugee status case because the judge was not convinced he was gay. He filed for a humanitarian appeal and a pre-removal risk assessment, which were both rejected by the Quebec Immigration Board.

Mulcair made a public plea to Finley on Wednesday after Amirthalingan's supporters contacted his Outremont riding office.

"What is really shocking is that they're threatening to deport Kulen not for something he did but for who he is," he said in French at the Ottawa news conference.

"That's a transgression of Canada's fundamental values, and we're having a hard time understanding the government's attitude, and we want this to transcend all partisan considerations."

Montreal human rights lawyer Julius Grey believes Amirthalingan's case merits the immigration minister's review, because "in Canada it is well-established that homosexuality can be a motive for refugee status."

"It would be contrary to my conscience to send back a homosexual to an openly Muslim country," he told CBC last week. "I would say chances of something terrible happening are so high, that it would be unconscionable to not act."

The Malaysia co-ordinator for Amnesty International Canada, Margaret John, said it's not clear whether Amirthalingan's life is at risk "but certainly his right to freedom of expression is at risk" she said.

"He may be charged with being a homosexual, he may be fined, he may be imprisoned."

Equality: women do better in unionized workplaces

On this International Women's Day I encourage everyone to please check out the Canadian Labour Congress home page, to see exactly how bad the wage gap between women and their male counterparts has actually grown.

According to the facts, it just doesn't pay to be a woman in Canada. It doesn't matter where we live. It doesn't matter what we do. It doesn't matter how much we or our parents have invested in a good education. At the end of the day, when women go to work, they get paid less than men.

In fact, over the past ten years, young women have done everything they were told to do to get ahead economically young women have put off starting a family so they could earn a post-secondary degree and build a career and now, they are actually worse off. The wage gap between them and their male counterparts has actually grown.

Shocking, isn't it? After more than a generation of equal participation in the workforce and at a point where younger women make up the majority of students at so many of our colleges and universities today, we're still not equal when it comes to the value that's placed on the work that women do in Canada.

The evidence can be found in a new report from the Canadian Labour Congress made public just in time for International Women's Day, March 8th.

According to this report, prepared by the Canadian Labour Congress, women in Canada who worked full-time, full-year jobs in 2005 earned just 70½ cents for every dollar earned by men in full-time, full-year jobs.

SFL marks IWD with campaign launch on wage gap

The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour embarked on a joint campaign today with the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) entitled “Equality…Once and For All”. The launch of the campaign is taking place across the country in conjunction with International Women’s Day.

The CLC released a new report on the gendered wage gap in Canada, entitled “Women in the Workforce: Still a Long Way from Equality”. Using the latest workforce statistics, the CLC concludes that the wage gap, where women earn 70.5 cents for every dollar earned by men, is persistent and even worsening for some women.

“One of the most disturbing findings is that for young, university-educated women, the wage gap has actually become worse in recent years,” says SFL Women’s Committee Chair, Shelley Johnson. “We told our daughters that the way to be economically independent was to get an education and what we are finding is that those skills are not being rewarded. Women are now more educated than men, and are putting off having families in order to get that education, yet they are falling behind their male counterparts.”

Some of the reasons the wage gap persists include: occupational segregation; lack of publicly-funded childcare; an employment insurance program that discriminates against part-time workers; concentration of women in low-paying and minimum wage jobs; and the restructuring of women’s work by privatization and contracting out.

“Too many women struggle to make a living. Too many women are working and retiring in poverty. At the same time, we have a federal government who claims that women have equality, but then promptly cancels publicly-funded daycare and women’s programming across the country. It’s a contradiction,” says Johnson.

One encouraging finding is that the wage gap for unionized women is significantly lower. “At the provincial level, we have a government who is about to make it far more difficult for women to join a union and to bargain collectively. The SFL will work hard on this campaign over the coming year to organize women to fight these political realities,” adds Johnson.

The SFL represents approximately 95,000 unionized workers from 37 affiliated unions in
Saskatchewan.

For more information, contact Shelley Johnson at 949-9893 (cel.)
or Cara Banks at 533-3423.

Jack Layton Appears on Lou Dobbs (NAFTA)

NDP to try to topple government over climate change policies

The New Democrats will try to bring down the federal government on Friday by introducing a confidence motion criticizing the Conservatives' record on climate change.

But the Liberals have already indicated they will not vote for the motion, meaning the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper will not fall.

The NDP will use their opposition day to say the House of Commons has lost confidence in the government for failing to live up to its international climate change agreements and refusing to adopt opposition-approved legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"I think that it's clear that Canadians cannot have any confidence in the Harper government when it comes to climate change," NDP Leader Jack Layton said. "Heavens, he's shovelling subsidies into the tar sands faster than anyone could imagine."

While Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, who has made climate change a top priority, said he supports the NDP motion in principle, it will not be used to topple the government.

"Well, we'll certainly vote supporting the idea that that this government has been wrong, wrong, wrong about the environment, but we'll not trigger an election because Mr. Layton is asking for one."

Dion indicated that only a handful of Liberal MPs will support the NDP motion and the rest will boycott the vote. The Liberals have employed similar tactics on other budget votes — a move heckled by Harper and the other party leaders.

Liberal environment critic David McGuinty said the NDP are just playing political games.

"In order to try to score cheap political points, the NDP are playing cheap mischievous games in the house with motions they know are not going to succeed."

McGuinty made the comments after the Liberals tried to pass a motion that condemned the "irresponsible and self-serving actions" of the NDP and Bloc Québécois in defeating the previous Liberal government in 2005, thus enabling the Harper Tories to take power.

The motion also comes as CBC News has learned a yet-to-be-released federal report concludes that Canada can expect to see more devastating storms and extreme weather because of climate change.

REPLY from” Assistant 1″, Saskatchewan MP’s Ottawa Office

Sometimes they just don't get it LOL

received March 06, 2008

From: Breitkreuz, Garry- Assitant 1

Subject: Federal Government Message

Hello Ms. Yuile:

My apologies if you received more than one flyer from the Conservative Party of Canada.

CPC asked Canada Post to deliver just one unaddressed piece per household, and if this didn’t happen in your case, we are sorry.

Regards,

Garry Breitkreuz, MP
House of Commons
Room 685, Confederation Building
Ottawa ON K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 992-4394
Fax: (613) 992-8676
E-MAIL: breitg0@parl.gc.ca
www.garrybreitkreuz.com

My reply:

Assistant 1,

Thank you for clarifying that it was actually Canada Post’s error and wastefulness in sending multiple flyers to each household- because it was not only my home, but several thousand others who received them.

I will be sure to send them your reply and take that matter up with them directly. Their response will be interesting, I am sure.

However, this does not address why a Saskatchewan MP is sending costly flyers to BC residents who are quite obviously not his constituents? I,and my readers, would appreciate an answer regarding this matter, perhaps from Garry himself.

Thank you

Conservative MP from Saskatchewan now sending junk mail for Surrey’s recycling program

Check out I’m Laila Yuile, and This Is How I See It

An open letter to Garry Breitkreuz, MP, Yorkton-Melville, SASKATCHEWAN

Dear Garry,

You must know Mark Warawa, MP, from Langley British Columbia. Here is a link to an open letter I sent to him, for which I have yet to receive a reply. http://lailayuile.wordpress.com/2008/03/03/the-cost-of-stephen-harper-courtesy-of-mark-warawa-mp/

I received yet another junk mail flyer from Mr. Warawa today, bringing the total to 7 unaddressed conservative flyers trashing the Liberal Party. I thought surely, this is some kind of joke.

Then I discovered your junk-mail flyers in the pile- two of them, identical in format, using the threat of losing the childcare benefit as a way to scare potential voters away from the Liberals.

Not recognizing your name, I did a quick MP finder search, and imagine my surprise to discover you don’t even hold a BC riding! You are the MP for Yorkton-Melville, Saskatchewan ! Utterly amazed at this turn of events, and turning the flyer over, I see that like Mark Warawa’s junk mail , I can check my little box on this one and return it, free of postage to the House of Commons - all courtesy of tax-payer dollars.

What would the people within your own riding think if they were to know you were so thoughtfully informing British Columbians of our choices to lead the government? Can you please tell me what this is all costing us? As with Mark Warawa’s unending stream of wasteful expenditures on this junk mail, I must shake my head at the arrogance of your choice to send this all the way to the province of BC. We do have TV and newspapers here, you know, and are all very literate. We know who stands for what in the government, because it is all we hear about in the press.

I would appreciate a reply as soon as possible, as I am quite puzzled why you would be spending so much money to send junk mail all the way to Surrey ,British Columbia.

Next time, harass your own constituents.

Sincerely,

Laila Yuile, Canadian taxpayer

www.lailayuile.wordpress.com

The following is taken from the Art Threat:

Jack Layton and the NDP weigh in on Bill C-10

By Ezra Winton, March 5, 2008 Comments (1)

Apologies to all our readers in the US who may not be as interested in this issue, but up here in Canuckland, Bill C-10 and its implications are big news and Art Threat is committed to providing steady updates as they come in. Now a word from the NDP's Jack Layton:

Thank you for contacting me about Bill C-10 and the Harper government's plans to censor film in Canada that it finds "offensive". I agree that expanding the criteria used for denying tax credits to artists amounts to censorship and will have devastating consequences for the film and television industry.

New Democrats are standing up in Parliament to protect freedom of artistic expression in Canada. NDP House Leader Libby Davies was the first to raise the issue in Question Period and NDP Industry Critic Peggy Nash has made a formal statement in the House of Commons. NDP Culture and Heritage Critic Bill Siksay pushed this matter at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage and in related media interviews. I invite you to support our petition to rescind any provisions of Bill C-10 which allow the government to censor film and video production. Please find below copies of our House interventions and the petition.

We believe that to be successful in its goal of encouraging Canadian film and video production, the tax credit system must be transparent and objective. We strongly object to having either the Minister of Canadian Heritage or nameless bureaucrats as the arbiters of what stories should be told or how they should be portrayed. Calls for subjective decision-making amount to censorship and have no place in a free and democratic society. I am sure you will agree that we must never confuse controversy for inappropriateness in a diverse country like Canada.

Again, I appreciate your efforts to protect artistic expression in Canada. I encourage you to pass along my response to all who may be interested. All the best.

Sincerely,

Jack Layton, MP (Toronto-Danforth)
Leader, Canada's New Democrats

Bill 5 and Bill 6? UNION BUSTING, plain and simple.

I invite you all to please check out Larry Hubich's blog for important information on BIlls 5 and 6. This is now in critical stage!!!!

The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour (SFL) has posted it's brief to Sask. Party Minister of Advanced Education, Employment and Labour Minister Rob Norris on the SFL Web-Site.